Objective #2: Preparing a Professional Teaching Portfolio. The teaching portfolio serves three major purposes:
(1) To assist you in expanding and integrating your knowledge, skills, and dispositions about the teaching profession;
(2) To provide you with a portfolio that, with adaptations, can be shared with potential employers; and
(3) To provide faculty with a means to evaluate your performance as well as the effectiveness of the Elementary Program.
Guidelines for Creating a Portfolio
A portfolio documents how your teaching competency evolved and is continuing to evolve. The materials or artifacts you include should showcase accomplishments that are linked to William and Mary’s elementary education teaching competencies and performance standards. The portfolio will include artifacts and interspersed narratives that explain your basis for selecting the artifacts. The narratives should demonstrate your ability as a reflective decision maker and will provide cohesion for the portfolio. Narratives should not be confused with the annotations that are affixed to individual artifacts. The portfolio is not intended to be a scrapbook, rather it should illuminate who you are as a teacher. Emphasizing such insights increases the portfolio’s usefulness as an interviewing tool.
Contents could include:
I. Summary Content Page
a. A cover sheet in the form of a Table of Contents or Matrix should orient the reader to the alignment between the artifacts, the William and Mary competencies, and the Conceptual Framework.
II. Background Information
a. Resume
b. Educational Philosophy and Teaching Goals
i. Two- to three-page summary should discuss how your beliefs about teaching and learning have deepened or changed as you progressed through the teacher preparation program.
ii. Share discoveries and insights you have gained.
iii. Identify your strengths and successes as a teacher and how you expect they will influence student learning.
III. Teaching Artifacts and Annotations
a. Categories of Teaching Competencies that should be addressed through your artifacts and annotations (these align with your 2003 update to the W&M Handbook):
i. Foundational understanding (Your annotations will reinforce your ability to demonstrate these competencies.)
ii. Ability to Plan, Organize, and Prepare for Teaching
iii. Teaching Skills
iv. Assessment and Evaluation for Learning
v. Classroom Management Knowledge and Skills
vi. Professional Knowledge and Skills
b. Artifacts
i. Artifacts are the products and by-products of teaching which document a teacher’s performance. Artifacts have been generated in campus courses and field experiences.
ii. Ensure that artifacts are included for lessons taught in the four key content areas: reading/language arts, social studies, science, and math.
c. Annotations
i. For each artifact you select, write a caption or narrative that explains how the sample is related to your intent, what you learned from it and how it affected student achievement.
ii. Notations are the “road signs” that guide a reviewer’s understanding of why you included each item.
IV. Professional Information
a. Personal critique of videotaped lesson
b. Professional activities, participation in staff development, leadership experiences
c. Letters of recommendation
d. Formal evaluations
e. Test scores (e.g., Praxis), optional
Objective #2: Preparing a Professional Teaching Portfolio. The teaching portfolio serves three major purposes:
(1) To assist you in expanding and integrating your knowledge, skills, and dispositions about the teaching profession;
(2) To provide you with a portfolio that, with adaptations, can be shared with potential employers; and
(3) To provide faculty with a means to evaluate your performance as well as the effectiveness of the Elementary Program.
Guidelines for Creating a Portfolio
A portfolio documents how your teaching competency evolved and is continuing to evolve. The materials or artifacts you include should showcase accomplishments that are linked to William and Mary’s elementary education teaching competencies and performance standards. The portfolio will include artifacts and interspersed narratives that explain your basis for selecting the artifacts. The narratives should demonstrate your ability as a reflective decision maker and will provide cohesion for the portfolio. Narratives should not be confused with the annotations that are affixed to individual artifacts. The portfolio is not intended to be a scrapbook, rather it should illuminate who you are as a teacher. Emphasizing such insights increases the portfolio’s usefulness as an interviewing tool.
Contents could include:
I. Summary Content Page
a. A cover sheet in the form of a Table of Contents or Matrix should orient the reader to the alignment between the artifacts, the William and Mary competencies, and the Conceptual Framework.
II. Background Information
a. Resume
b. Educational Philosophy and Teaching Goals
i. Two- to three-page summary should discuss how your beliefs about teaching and learning have deepened or changed as you progressed through the teacher preparation program.
ii. Share discoveries and insights you have gained.
iii. Identify your strengths and successes as a teacher and how you expect they will influence student learning.
III. Teaching Artifacts and Annotations
a. Categories of Teaching Competencies that should be addressed through your artifacts and annotations (these align with your 2003 update to the W&M Handbook):
i. Foundational understanding (Your annotations will reinforce your ability to demonstrate these competencies.)
ii. Ability to Plan, Organize, and Prepare for Teaching
iii. Teaching Skills
iv. Assessment and Evaluation for Learning
v. Classroom Management Knowledge and Skills
vi. Professional Knowledge and Skills
b. Artifacts
i. Artifacts are the products and by-products of teaching which document a teacher’s performance. Artifacts have been generated in campus courses and field experiences.
ii. Ensure that artifacts are included for lessons taught in the four key content areas: reading/language arts, social studies, science, and math.
c. Annotations
i. For each artifact you select, write a caption or narrative that explains how the sample is related to your intent, what you learned from it and how it affected student achievement.
ii. Notations are the “road signs” that guide a reviewer’s understanding of why you included each item.
IV. Professional Information
a. Personal critique of videotaped lesson
b. Professional activities, participation in staff development, leadership experiences
c. Letters of recommendation
d. Formal evaluations
e. Test scores (e.g., Praxis), optional